1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a surveying apparatus for automatically making a survey of land and various construction sites such as buildings with a high degree of accuracy in an easy operation, and more particularly to an automatic surveying apparatus in which various survey data can be collected and managed by only one operator.
1. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the accuracy of measuring distances and angles in surveying for road construction, tunneling, building construction and so on has been significantly improved and the operational efficiency of the survey has been far advanced by use of laser surveying instruments of various types such as a laser range finder for conducting a distance measurement, a laser theodolite for conducting an angle measurement and a laser transit or total station system capable of conducting distance and angle measurements.
However, so far as the survey depends on traditional surveying methods typified by traverse surveying and triangular surveying, it is necessary to dispose at least one surveyor for operating the aforementioned surveying instruments at the survey reference station (base point) and one supplementary operator for carrying a leveling staff for a telescope range finder or a reflecting target used for a laser surveying instrument to plurality of surveying stations (subsidiary survey points). That is, the surveying work has conventionally required at least two surveyors or operators as a matter of course.
To be more specific, it is possible to automatically calculate the desired geodetic results such as an area, relative positions, and gradient of land from the measured survey data (e.g. distance and angle values) obtained by the aforementioned stationary surveying instrument disposed at the base point for surveying by the aid of a data processing system including a computer. However, the data processing system of this type is usually connected to the stationary surveying instrument located at the base point so as to be operated by the one operator. In a word, the operator could not necessarily leave the stationary surveying instrument at the base point during surveying. Accordingly, unless the supplementary operator is not wanted at the subsidiary survey point, the number of operators required for surveying can in no way be reduced under the existing conditions.